Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff met on a blind date in 2013 and were married the following year. Photo / Kamala Harris / Twitter
Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff met on a blind date in 2013 and were married the following year. Photo / Kamala Harris / Twitter
It's the kind of love Americans missed from their leaders and it's oozing out already.
After rocker Bruce Springsteen shared a poem that highlighted how the White House had become "joyless" under Donald Trump's presidency, the US has rejoiced over its new president-elect Joe Biden and his deputy Kamala Harris, with dogs finally returning to the Oval Office and the new leaders sharing insights into their personal lives.
The vice president-elect officially introduced her husband Doug Emhoff to Twitter today, although he'd already been on the scene.
Posting a photo of the pair, she said the lawyer – who will be the country's first ever second gentleman – was the love of her life. Twitter reacted enthusiastically, gushing over the romantic tweet.
Harris, 56, made history by becoming the first female, the first black and the first Asian-American to be elected vice president of the United States (Harris is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants).
Emhoff, 56, will also be the first Jewish person in American history to be married to a president or vice president.
The couple met on a blind date in 2013 and were married the following year.
Emhoff is a high-powered entertainment lawyer who earns an annual salary of more than US$1 million (NZ$1.6m).
Kamala Harris and her new boss, US President-elect Joe Biden. Photo / AP
Harris' best friend, PR consultant Chrisette Hudlin, was the one who set the couple up, apparently telling her at the time: "He's cute and he's the managing partner of his law firm and I think you're going to like him."
Despite being a Golden State Warriors fan, Harris wrote back "Go Lakers" when her new love interest texted her courtside at an LA Lakers game.
The next morning he called her while she was at the gym before work.
"I had an early meeting and as I was driving to work, I couldn't get you off my mind," he told her later.
"I kept saying to myself, 'It's 8.30am, it's way too early to call her. That would be ridiculous. Don't be that guy. Don't call her. Don't do it.'"
After he left a long, rambling message, he thought he had ruined his chances - to the extent that he considered leaving a second rambling message explaining the first.
Harris actually found it "endearing". She still has the message saved on her phone.
She called him back at lunch, they talked for an hour and the rest, as they say, is history.
